He Works at the Brewery
by surii-chan
Summary: Love always tastes best with a tall cold beer. ZachxCloud Rating for later chapters!


"Six months. Six months!" Tifa mentally yelled as she wiped down the bar counter. "It's been sixth months since _his_ death, and Cloud still wears nothing but black and has that damn melancholy expression on _all_ the time!"

Her grip tightened on the towel just as something deep inside her gripped roughly on her heart as sudden realization to those words sunk in.

'No, that's enough now. No thinking like that, Tifa.'

She had discovered long ago that Cloud would never return her feelings; discovered that he wasn't even _able_ to, in fact. The man was gay. It hurt at first, but Tifa would always be there for Cloud, even if it was just as a friend.

'Anyway, wouldn't it have hurt worse if he had picked another woman?'

Still, sometimes Tifa felt like screaming to Gaia why the hell she couldn't attract anything pumped with Testosterone. I mean, weren't her boobs big enough? On top of that, they were real!

Pushing aside her failed love life, Tifa returned her thoughts to their previous subject. Cloud was a sensitive guy. Tifa _knew_ that. Even little Marlene and Denzel quickly realized saying _his_ name caused Cloud's heart to be ripped into a million of tiny pieces all over again. His face would contort into the most heart-wrenching emotion any of them had ever seen. Like it did the day he found out.

Needless to say, Tifa was tired of it. Extremely tired. She made a pact with herself right then and there, that she would see Cloud happy by the end of the year. That meant she had two months.

'Or so help me Gaia, I'll just bring Hojo back_ myself_ and have him turn me into a guy so I can just rape the sadness and sexual frustration right outta him!'

"Tifa," came a soft spoken voice that echoed just barely, completely due to the emptiness of the room.

Tifa's head shot up at the barely audible noise, instinct from years of developing fighter's skills.

Oh. It was just Cloud. Staring at her oddly, almost as if he was able to read her thoughts and had heard what she had just roared throughout her mind.

"What are you doing back so early? Done with all your deliveries already?"

"…Yea."

Tifa watched as he made his way across the room towards the hallway beside the staircase that led to his office. However, right before he could disappear from her sight-

"Cloud?"

He turned to her with an expectant look in his eyes, but when she merely stared back, he followed with a –

"…What?"

just for good measure.

"Umm…I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and go to the Brewery in the northern part of Edge. I'm going to go see if they have anything new, and I also need to restock on a lot of the ale I sell here so…I'll probably be gone most of the day, think you could lock up and everything when you leave for your deliveries?"

Tifa decided that halfway through her ramble, Cloud must have fallen asleep with his eyes open. He never liked it when people went on and on about nothing in particular. It wasn't until she got a soft "…Alright." did she know he had actually been paying attention. Probably.

With that, he stalked off into the dark confines of his office, meaning he'd probably stay in there doing paperwork all night, decide against coming out even just to say "goodnight", and leave Tifa to worry about whether or not he had remembered to eat dinner all night long. This had to stop.

* * *

The next morning Tifa got up, got dressed, and left the house around the ungodly hour of seven. Truthfully, there was no need for her to be out so early. The brewery didn't even open for another two hours, but she needed serious thinking time.

Tifa walked up the street for a while, waving and saying hello to any person she knew who could stand to be up this early. Soon enough, she came upon a little diner that served all three meals, and was open twenty-four hours a day. Perfect.

As soon as she had slid into the booth, a waitress with dark eyes and short black hair was already at her side, ready to take her order. Tifa figured it was probably from the lack of patronage this early in the morning.

"Hi, my name's Yuffie! Welcome to Pammy's. May I take your order?"

"Er…Could I have some Coffee? And some Chocolate Chip Pancakes too, please?"

"Sure! Would you like sugar and crème with that too?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Okie dokie! I'll be back soon with your order!"

Tifa sighed as she watched the perky waitress practically _skip_ back into the kitchen. It was unreal that someone could be so peppy at seven-somethin-or-other in the morning.

'Well, this is much better than trying to think at home,' Tifa mused to herself. 'Cloud had honed his senses to the point where you can't even think about him without him knowing! It's ridiculous!

Yuffie soon came out of the kitchen to place the pancakes and filled coffee cup in front of Tifa with a "I'll come back to check on ya soon!", and then she was gone. Not that Tifa really cared.

Contrary to what she had hoped, Tifa didn't really think about much of anything as she picked at her pancakes and sipped her coffee. Yuffie had come around once to fill her cup, but that was it. But once again, Tifa didn't rea-

"Hey there! You've been here for a while. Want some more coffee?"

"Umm..No, thank you. Just the check, please."

"Okie dokie! Be right back!"

After Tifa had payed, gathered up enough energy to move, and checked her watch, she once again was on her way to the Brewery. It was around eight-thirty. It would only take about ten minutes to walk to there, but she figured she could just wait outside for the workers to show up.

There were no people or cars around when she reached her destination, so she plopped down on a bench conveniently located right outside the front lobby of the Brewery for purposes such as these.

Just for the sake of having nothing else to do, she checked her watch. Eight-forty-five. So it had taken her a little more time than she had expected to get here. Good. Less time to wait.

'Okay,' Tifa mused. 'To find the solution you must assess the problem first.'

' Cloud has never really been very outgoing and talkative, but these past six months he has crawled all the way into his shell and has become a hollow version of his previous self. Of course, that's expected since he has a reason to be sad, but for this long? Everything and everyone that had tried to comfort Cloud so far had failed. Miserably. So…that meant Tifa just needed to introduce him to something completely different; something that would turn his whole world upside-down! Maybe then, he could finally move on and be happy.'

"You look like you're doin' some serious thinkin', hmm?"

"Huh..wha?!" Tifa's head snapped up from its previous place on her folded hands to look straight into the eyes of a dark-skinned and muscular man with a metal forearm.

"Oh! Hey Barret. I was so caught up in my thoughts I didn't even hear the sound of you pulling up!"

"Gettin' got up in thoughts? That's not really like you, Tifa, hmm? Need'a talk about it?"

"Well…no. Not really. I think I solved the problem on my own, I just have to find what I'm gonna use as an answer."

"What? I have no idea what you're talkin' about, hmm? Anway, how's my lil Marlene doin'?"

"Oh, she's great. I think her and Denzel have a wonderful time together when Cloud and I are working, and I play with the kids whenever I get a chance."

"That's good ta hear. Thanks for takin' such good care a' her while I get my finances all in order. Kinda tough, from all the debt I owe from my failed "Oil Company" attempt, hmm?"

"What're friends for, Barret? So…I need to restock on some of my ales, and I heard about you all thinking of importing some more foreign ale? I wanted to see if any of them would be good to sell in the bar."

"Alright then, hmm? Zach came with me, so he's probably inside by now. He can help you taste test all the new stuff while I go check the stockroom."

"Okay, then. See you soon."

Both raised to stand, but while Barret went to the back, Tifa went in through the front to the lobby area.

When she stepped inside, she was greeted by the smell of freshly brewed beer, and some kind of air freshener. There behind the counter, flipping through a magazine, was a man close to her age with spiky obsidian hair.

He looked up to reveal bright sky blue eyes after he heard the soft "ding", warning him he had a customer. He grinned when he saw who it was, "Hey, Tifa! Shoulda known it was you, with you sitting outside just a moment ago and all."

She smiled warmly, "Hey Zach. I was wondering if I could taste some of the new imports to see if my regulars would like it. Maybe take a couple bottles and ask them myself?"

"Sure! There's one we just got that I think would be a great seller at the Seventh Heaven. It's called Dead Guy Ale from Rogue. I really like it, and I think you will too. Here, I'll open a bottle for us."

Zach then grabbed two small glasses and a bottle opener from under the counter. He went over to the cooler and pulled out the cold 22-ounce bottle, popped the cap with the expertise than came with his job, and proceeded to poor a bit of the dark liquid into each glass.

Zach laughed as Tifa sniffed the glass before taking a small sip. "It's a little sweet," she said before taking a bigger gulp. "But I like it."

"Nothing like a little beer in the morning to cheer you up, right? Wanna take a few bottles back to bar and try it with the customers?"

"Sure, sounds good. I'll pay for 'em at the same time as all the crates Barret's putting on you all's delivery truck. And pour me some more, I'm gonna need a lot more to cheer up today."

"Woah there, missy! What's got your panties in a knot?"

"Just so you know, I'm wearing a thong. And, it's about a good friend of mine. He's becoming more and more distant lately, and it's really worrying me. I've been in kind of a grumpy mood because of it."

Zach tapped one finger to his chin thoughtfully, "Well, I don't think you should worry _this _much! It's probably one of those things that he needs to work out on his own, and if he really is such a good, friend he probably doesn't want you to worry, either. So, y'know, support him by surrounding him with happy, not worry."

"Thanks, Zach. I guess I didn't realize that's what I needed to do until I heard it directly." She visibly brightened, "You always can make me feel better!"

Zach laughed, "Yea, people tell me I can cheer up anyone." He grinned widely, "I guess it's just a talent!"

Before Zach was even through with his first sentence it felt like Tifa had been pelted upside the head with a really heavy rock.

"Zach! You're IT!" Tifa all but yelled which made Zach jump slightly.

"What are you-"

"You're the ANSWER! You can help fix Cloud!"

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Hate it? Love it? Lemme know!


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